Howard Hill visit

Here is an excerpt from my last visit with Howard and Bernice. I had been asking him questions about teaching Tuscarora and the entire recording is about 45 mins long. But if you work with elders, you know that the juicy details come as soon as recording devices are turned off! I felt it important to share his thoughts on the impact of the dictionary and standardization since many communities have been and continue to face this issue.

I know that some elder Maori speakers in Aotearoa cannot understand the Maori that is used on the national television networks and the Maori that is taught in schools. This is because several different dialects exist and were maintained by different iwi (people, tribal) groups. The standardization is meant to make the language stronger, but I wonder the cost to the “strength”?